Currently, media files such as audio, video, and multimedia files are transmitted on the Internet based on an AHS (Adaptive HTTP Streaming) technology of a streaming service of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). In a media distribution process, such as television reception based on a set top box, of a terminal after the terminal receives a media file, an end user or a receiver that has paid for media content may illegally redistribute the received content to an unauthorized user or directly share the received content on the Internet. This distribution behavior is one of piracy behaviors.
However, in a process of implementing a pirate tracing technology in the prior art, a method for tracing a malicious distributor is: embedding a unique identifier related to a terminal (receiver) into media content, so that each terminal (receiver) receives a different media copy. When a terminal (receiver) maliciously distributes the content, the malicious distributor can be determined by detecting an identifier in the content, which is implemented in two different manners:
One manner is based on a server. A server end embeds and sends the media content according to a request of a user, and sends a media copy to each user. However, in this method, the server end needs to process the media content in real time, respond to requests of all users, and generate and distribute a different media copy to each user; for the server end, concurrent load is excessively large. Therefore, in the event of a large user quantity and limited bandwidth, a problem of tracing the media information in an AHS system, that is, a problem of tracing a pirate that pirates the media information, cannot be resolved.
The other manner is based on the terminal. The server end broadcasts only one type of media data stream, a client (terminal) is responsible for selecting a corresponding media data segment according to its own identifier and performing decryption and decoding, so as to obtain different media data.
However, in this method, the server end needs to broadcast two copies of a media code stream, instead of basing on an active request of an end user; therefore, the technology cannot resolve a problem related to pirating of media information in the AHS system and tracing of a pirate that pirates the media information.
It can be learned from the foregoing description that, the pirate tracing technology in the prior art not only has a problem that embedding of an identifier cannot be efficiently implemented under limiting conditions of a large user quantity and limited bandwidth, but also is not applicable to a current AHS system, and media information that can support pirate tracing cannot be generated.